Golden Master

VOSIM Synthesis for the Masses

I’m always on the lookout for interesting new ways to get sounds, or new synthesis methods. Especially ones that don’t take a degree an DSP engineering to figure out. VOSIM fits the bill. VOSIM is a kind of formant synthesis where you can control the formant (louder peaks in the frequency spectrum, like in vocals) and fundamental frequency of a tone completely independently, without using any subtractive filters.

Some VOSIM waveforms

Above are some VOSIM waveforms. It’s hard to glean exactly what VOSIM is from the Csound patches and weird academic descriptions online, so I am just giving my approximate definitions and explanations here (please correct me if I’m wrong here, inter-nerds). Basically, VOSIM is a chain of Parabol (or sine) pulses that are “windowed” or enveloped into bursts. There can be a delay between these bursts, or they can immediately follow one another. I found that the delay between bursts did not affect the sound as much as the frequency of the pulse trains, and it was tricky to implement (I did have a working version of a delayed-burst version of VOSIM working to get the waveforms in the image above) so I just made a version with continuous bursts (where one follows immediately after the preceding burst).

Breaking it down...

The diagram above explains the Signal flow of my patch. A sine wave is multiplied by itself to give sine^2. This makes the waveform completely positive instead of bipolar. A sawtooth wave that has only positive values is multiplied with the Sin^2 pulses to give continuous Bursts of pulses. The length of these bursts, determined by the frequency of the sawtooth wave, gives the fundamental frequency of the tone, and the frequency of the sine^2 pulses gives the formant frequency.

sawtooth wave (orange) provides the envelope for the pulses (yellow)

There is one other trick to getting this all working–the sine^2 pulses must be phase-synced with the sawtooth wave so there are no ugly clicking sounds. Any synthesis system with oscillators that can be synced should do this just fine. Make sure that the sawtooth wave is ramping downwards, not upwards, as is often the case in synthesizers.

This is a very interesting synthesis method that can be implemented in just about any digital modular system! I think more people should give it a try. And I think there should be more dialogue online about doing cool stuff like this instead of gazillions of rehashings of classic analogue sounds and “how did so and so get this sound in such and such track.” So, anyone else have some cool ideas?

Here is a video I made to illustrate what the VOSIM waveform looks like, and some of the sounds that can be achieved with a simple VOSIM patch:

Here is my nord G2 modular VOSIM patch:

Golden VOSIM G2 patch

I got my idea for this stuff from the fantastic “Advanced programming Techniques for Modular Synthesizers” website.

Here’s a quick track I made with the VOSIM sounds (needed my 2nd beer for this one):

Voxhinda Mp3 Audio

4 Comments

Golden Master, March 7th 2010 | Tags: Audio And Synthesis, formant, g2 modular, VOSIM
Posted in Audio And Synthesis, Nord G2 Modular, Theory, Ideas

Inspiration

comes from many places. Getting weird music on cassettes… now that’s inspiring. I think I found my new favorite record shop in seattle.

some stuff from neptune music company here in Seattle

4 Comments

Golden Master, March 4th 2010 | Posted in rant

Reaktor Modular Sequencing: Part 3

I did a little more work on the modular sequencer for Reaktor this week. I added some useful new modules, some randomization modules, and so on. I also built a sort of clone of the “Mono note” module from five12’s program, Numerology, but with a few of my own twists.

Edit: If you’re going to give these a try, please take a look at the included .ens file first! Most of the modules for the software are in the .rar file but the “brains” for getting the clock and everything working are in the .ens file, and you need to start from there. thanks :).

The Velocity Combo Seq. Has pitch, gate, and velocity all in the same module.

I am also changing the way I’m distributing the sequencer. I am including a main .ens file that has the master clock and so on, and just a few modules to get you started. I am now also including a .rar file that you can extract to your macros folder in your library, and you can pull in modules from there as you need them.

New modules now include:

A random trigger module (like in the g2 system) which sends out a random value when it receives a trigger input. This is good to send into the “scale quantize” module to make randomized harmonies and melodies.

A probability module that only lets a certain percentage of incoming events through to the output.

The new “Combo Velocity Sequencer” as pictured above, which has a pitch, gate, and velocity sequence all in the same module so you can get them all at once if you want.

there is also a “combo sequencer” that has gate and pitch, without the velocity sequencer.

As mentioned before, look in the comments inside the ensemble to see information about the stuff. Also, i’ll mention again: if anyone is interested in making some of their own modules, or helping me bug shoot this stuff, any interest is greatly appreciated :). This is a complex project and, honestly, I prefer making music to patching. But this is fun too :).

Here’s the ensemble file for the third beta:

Golden Sequencer Beta 3

And here is the archive of all the modules:

Goldseq.rar

1 Comment

Golden Master, February 26th 2010 | Posted in reaktor, software

Image Line Drumaxx Drum Synth Review

I saw the announcement for Image Line’s new drum synth, Drumaxx today, and listened to the demos, and was impressed! I am normally more interested in more esoteric or interesting sound design tools, but I have been looking for drum software that fits my needs for a long time. Until now, I’ve been disappointed with the offerings out there. There’s a few, like waldorf attack, araldfx DKS, and some others, but I never really liked the sound or the functionality. I own Sonic Charge’s MicroTonic drum synth, and even though it sounds great and is fun to use, it is sonically limited.

the synthesis section of the Drumaxx GUi

The difference with Drumaxx is that the engine is based on physical modeling. This makes a big difference! All the other drum synths out there have percussion synthesis engines that are, for the most part, based around filtered noise, oscillators, and pitch and amplitude envelopes. The araldFX DKS plugin has a physical modeling component to it, but I found it poorly realized.

I tried it out, and bought it, and here are some of my thoughts. First though, here is a simple demo track I made. I sequenced Drumaxx from numerology, along with a synth patch in my nord g2.

Elcorian Fratart (locrian fart)

Firstly, the sound engine is fantastic and it has a very broad range of sounds. It is punchy and detailed compared to the other drum synths I’ve used. I don’t know what the coders at image line did with this box, but I’m very impressed. I don’t know how they managed to make it so you could squeeze ethnic percussion sounds, techno drums, weird effects, and acoustic kit sounds all from the same set of 10 knobs, but they did. And they all sound good, and don’t have that fake, plastic character that’s bothered me with a lot of other drum synthesis stuff. The percussion sounds great too. Some of the percussion synthesis really sounds much better than the samples I have in my sample library, and I have a LOT of percussion samples.

There are some good and bad things about using the plugin. Firstly, it uses a formidable amount of CPU–as much as some fancy reverb plugins or synth plugins. But I attribute all that CPU usage to some sort of magic going on in the software that makes it sound so good. Also, programming is a little tricky. The knobs have a ridiculous amount of travel on them that has me really running my mouse up and down the desk just trying to get them adjusted to the right value. And since the parameters are unfamiliar (instead of the traditional filter, osc, envelope stuff), it’s hard to know what is going to affect the sound in the way you want. Thankfully, there aren’t that many controls, so I think it will become intuitive enough after I’ve gotten more familiar with the plugin.

All things considered, though, the GUI for this plugin is very good, and easy to use. I am just complaining about the synthesis section. Selecting presets, loading and saving sounds are all a snap, and I had this plugin figured out within 2 minutes of downloading and opening it.

The plugin has normal features for automating the parameters from within whatever DAW you’re using. But I wish it was easier to assign CC’s to the different synthesis parameters, instead of having to dive through the massive list (16 channels worth) of different options. I love the feature, for instance, in Sonic Charge’s microtonic, where you can assign CC’s directly from the front panel.

The velocity modulation section is also kind of weird. It is hard to predict how the velocity will affect the sound. And it doesn’t seem easy to just have the velocity slightly affect the sound you’re working on–the velocity modulation seems like it is either on or off, and sometimes you have to do a considerable amount of tweaking to get it working how you want.

Another thing that I might just be missing here, is that on the drumaxx website, one of the “plugin modes” is listed as “standalone.” I can’t think of this meaning anything other than there being a standalone application. I’ve downloaded both the PC and mac versions of drumaxx and this is nowhere to be found.

All together, I think this is a great drum synth, quick and easy to use, and more importantly, it sounds incredible. Highly recommended!

Another demo, this one a lot less of a demo and more of just some weird sounds. I was testing out using my Novation Launchpad to control a drum sequence that was being sent to drumaxx. It seems drumaxx is good enough at withstanding some very serious midi abuse :D.

Launchpad Drum Sequence

2 Comments

Golden Master, February 24th 2010 | Tags: drum, drumaxx, image line, review, synthesizer
Posted in reviews

Reaktor Modular Sequencing, Pt. 2

Well, looks like my weekend project has been working on my modular sequencing application for Reaktor. I’ve detailed what this is all about in my previous blog. I’ve updated the sequencer and added some detailed comments on all the GUI elements to help people get up to speed with using it.

some sequencer objects, including a scale quantizer with probabilities!

I’ve included a handful of useful modules. These modules are meant to be added and removed at your convenience to suit whatever purpose. Ideally, you could create multiple instruments holding these sequencer modules, and have them sent to various different devices, and store the different instruments in different Reaktor panelsets.

I’ve created a quick demo track to show some of the things the current sequencer modules can do, and this is only a small fraction of the possibilities. This track is Reaktor sending midi to my G2 modular on two different midi channels.

“reaktor sequencer chaos” mp3 audio

All modules have their own independent pattern lengths and step speeds. Included modules are a 6 channel drum sequencer, 3 kinds of gate sequencers, a “control” sequencer, a numeric sequencer, an LFO module for triggering sequences, a tempo modulation LFO, and a scale quantizer for making melodies with.

the drum sequencer

I plan on making more modules: Some random trigger modules, ratio sequencers, and so on, as well as MIDI automation stuff for sending CC messages, program changes, and also a snapshot sequencer for automatically changing the reaktor snapshots while the sequence is running.

anyway, let me know what you think, and I am especially interested in other people trying their hand at making some of their own sequencer modules too :).

Here is a link to the reaktor ensemble:

Reaktor Modular Sequencer Beta 2

3 Comments

Golden Master, February 21st 2010 | Tags: g2, modular, reaktor, sequencing
Posted in Nord G2 Modular, reaktor, software, tracks

Modular Sequencing: Structures and Sounds

Over the past year I have been using and loving five12’s modular sequencing application, Numerology. Numerology introduced me to the idea of modular sequencing. I even posted a full review of the program here:

Numerology Review

These days, modular synthesis seems damned popular. There’s an incredible amount of analog synthesis modules available from different companies and everyone and their mother (every rich guy and his mother, at least) seems like they have acquired or are on the road to getting a modular synth. Well, that’s great, and sure, i’d get one if I could afford it. To me, though, modular *sequencing* is a lot more interesting than modular *synthesis* right now.

Modular Sequencing in the nord g2

With modular synthesis, you design signal paths to create sounds. But with modular sequencing, you can design sequencer networks to create musical structures! If you have interesting control data, you can create better sounds. And if you have interesting structures, you can make sounds more interesting by creating a compelling musical context for them to exist in. With a good sequencer, you can send complex control data to even the most boring synth module to make it come alive.

There are a few options i know of for doing this kind of sequencing. Numerology is one of my favorites, but there are other platforms too. I have been doing a lot of sequencing on my g2 modular, which has excellent sequencing modules that are fast and intuitive to use. This track, for instance, was completely sequenced from my G2:

Archytas’ Alaap Mp3 audio

And in case you were interested, this track actually features one of those greek scales I was discussing in my previous blog. It’s Archytas’ Enharmonic Scale.

The g2 costs over $1000, though. And it’s discontinued. And Five12’s Numerology only runs on OSX! What’s a PC user without a g2 system to do? Well, I’ve been so intrigued by the possibilities that this type of sequencing offers, that I decided to make my own modular sequencing system in Reaktor that is inspired by my experiences with the g2 and Numerology. So hopefully, i’ll be creating another option for interested parties. The thing about modular sequencing is that the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. You can use a few very simple sequencing modules, if you find a clever way to control them, to create very nice evolving sequences.

snapshot of the beta version of my reaktor sequencer

This sequencing system is very much in Beta. Actually, I just started on it this week. But hopefully there is going to be more modules soon. And as soon as I have something more comprehensive going on, I might write up some simple documentation. So, for now, this ensemble is not for the reaktor n00bs out there. But feel free to give it a go! Just have it send midi to somewhere. Look inside the structure and see where the control data is coming from. have fun!

Here is a very simple demo track I made with this sequencer. I am only using the “gate seq” and the “control seq” to send a monophonic sequence to my tx81z. Just an experiment, but I think there is a lot of potential!

Reaktor Sequencing Demo

Here’s another demo, also, just straight midi being sent to my tx81z:

Reaktor Sequencing Demo 2

And finally, here is the reaktor ensemble:

Reaktor Modular Sequencing ensemble (beta)

1 Comment

Golden Master, February 20th 2010 | Posted in Theory, Ideas, microtonal, reaktor, software, tracks

Ancient Greek Scales!

Earlier I posted here about using pythagorean tuning in my music. Many other Greek philosophers had ideas about tuning instruments, however. A book I have, “Tuning and Temperament, a Historical Survey” by J. Murray Barbour, had a good list of Greek tunings in it. I didn’t find the book very interesting, because it focuses more on Temperaments than Just Intonation, and the author, like many others, approaches the subject with the idea that modern Equal Temperament is the pinnacle of all musical systems. But, hey, there are some good scales in there! I’ll share them here, to save you all some time :).

I have also been using Scala, a scale editor and librarian application, which has a ridiculously comprehensive listing of different scales, which I believe also encompasses the scales that I’ve put into this reaktor macro. The problem with Scala, i’ve found, is that there are just too many damn scales, and variations on scales, to even know where to begin. This doesn’t work for me. I am just taking things one step at a time, and finding little areas within microtonal and just intonation, and exploring them individually.

Thanks for the scales ptolemy! We're one step closer to the music of the spheres.

I took a micro tuning macro that I snagged from the Reaktor User Library a while back, and put these scales into it. I dont’ remember who made this macro, so if anyone knows, please speak up, and i’ll give the original author credit! Anyhow, the scales I found were from Ptolemy (more famous as an astronomer), Erastothenes, Archytas, and Didymus.

Greeks made scales out of groups of tetrachords, which are just basically small scales spanning the interval of a perfect fourth. These Greek scales all have a similar flavor, because they are built in the same way: two tetrachords, separated by a major second (the ratio of 9/8) in the center. Because of this, every scale here has the intervals of the perfect fourth and a perfect fifth. Also, these scales are all somewhat “phrygian” in character because they generally all start with a small step much like a half step, and finish with one of the many variations on a minor seventh that is found in just intonation. I really love how these scales are all unified by a similar method of construction, but all have their own different characters! That is what I was talking about earlier: finding an area, and exploring it. Systems like this are very interesting to work with.

I have set these scales up (since they are all made of 7 notes) to play on all the white keys of the keyboard. But if you play through the different modes of these scales, you can get even more different flavors!

Here is the Reaktor macro:

Greek Scales Reaktor Macro

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Golden Master, February 14th 2010 | Posted in Theory, Ideas, microtonal, reaktor, tuning

Harmonic Ratio Arpeggiator

I’ve gone on another microtonal trip lately, and have been working with ratios again. The thing about composing music with frequency ratios is that it places you in a brave new world where each interval is made up of TWO numbers instead of one (as in the traditional system, a fourth, third, fifth, etc). There are also all kinds of undiscovered tones and frequencies and relationships. There has to be a way to explore all this!

picture of the GUI for the reaktor arpeggiator

For those of you that aren’t hopeless music nerds like myself, a frequency ratio is just a relationship between frequencies. It is also the language of a tuning system called “just intonation.” A basic example: In the key of A, with the root frequency being 440 hertz, the A in the next higher octave is related to the original note a440 by a frequency ratio of 2/1, and is 880 hz. A major third is the ratio 5/4, or 550 hertz. Instead of the normal 12 steps per octave of Equal temperament, there is an infinite gradation of frequencies that you can manipulate to your heart’s content.

With all that freedom comes massive confusion. I have been trying to come up with some systems for composing with these numbers. The first most obvious idea would be to just make a fixed scale, choose a few notes, and play with that. That is fun! But, it doesn’t take advantage of all the flexibility that working with just intonation truly gives you. Instead of just choosing 7 or 12 or 10 notes, you can start with a set of 5 notes, and make them mutate and evolve into an infinity of other frequencies, but all logically related by numerical relationships!

This is my first system for making melodies and chords in just intonation: a harmonic arpeggiator. There are two different tables containing numbers for the numerator and denominator, and these tables can be moved through independently, at different speeds. Midi input triggers notes, but only the time and octave of the input notes is taken, and the rest is controlled by the ratio sequencers.

I have implemented this system in both my Nord g2 modular and in Reaktor, so I can make them work together.

Here is a simple melodic sort of track I did with the g2 patch:

Mp3 Audio of “Hydrogen”

Here is the Reaktor patch:

Reaktor Harmonic Arpeggiator

Here are a couple g2 patches:

G2 Harmonic Arpeggiator with Karpluss Synthesis

I will be coming up with more stuff soon! I want to make some programs that allow you to dynamically change the scale as you play. Not sure how easy that will be to do in the g2, but I’ll definitely be able to do it in reaktor.

10 Comments

Golden Master, February 8th 2010 | Tags: Audio And Synthesis, g2, just intonation, microtonal, nord, ratios, reaktor, scales, tuning
Posted in Audio And Synthesis, Nord G2 Modular, microtonal, reaktor, software, tracks

anise starscape

Today I picked up a bottle of Pernod at the liquor store. I’ve been planning on cooking up some mussels with some pernod, fennel, tarragon, and other stuff after eating some amazing mussels at a local Seattle restaurant, “Matt’s in the Market.” I poured myself a couple glasses of the stuff and got to work on a big crusty ambient groove.

anise

You can hear the track here:

anise Starscape

The track is fairly simple, really just an analog synth (roland mks-70) and some drums (from the g2 modular) run through a big stack of effects. I’ve been experimenting with the G2’s effects processing abilities, and I’ve been very impressed thus far. Enjoy!

1 Comment

Golden Master, January 27th 2010 | Posted in Nord G2 Modular, tracks

The Mother Lode

I put this blog up, for the most part, to get people interested in my music. In general, there is a lot of technical ramblings and audio experiments, as well as synthesis-related stuff on here, and postings about various gear that I use. I wanted to make a post with just a few more finished-sounding tracks, as differentiated from all the different experiments and random tracks that I’ve uploaded throughout the posts on this blog.

Mother Lode!

There’s quite a few good tracks hidden in the blog posts here, and if you click on the category “tracks” to the right, you can sort through only the blog posts where i’ve posted MP3’s of tracks. But here’s a few other ones, that, for the most part, I haven’t posted here! There is also a couple repeats, just because I am fond of some of them :).

Here’s a few tracks, showing some of the different kinds of stuff I do.

Among some, I am known for my drones. Here’s one called “Vico Drone” that I did lately. I have a full length album of drones that I need to find a place to release. This isn’t on there, though.

Vico Drone

I like some classic techno/electronica kinds of sounds. Here’s a track along those lines.

Aluminum

I love ethnic music from all different cultures. I did an EP that dissapeared into the vapors of the internets, dedicated to some of my favorite music. Here’s one called “ricemutt visits the monks.” Don’t ask me to explain the title!! This track features some of my more “droney” stuff.

Golden Master

VOSIM Synthesis for the Masses

4 Comments

Inspiration

4 Comments

Reaktor Modular Sequencing: Part 3

1 Comment

Image Line Drumaxx Drum Synth Review

2 Comments

Reaktor Modular Sequencing, Pt. 2

3 Comments

Modular Sequencing: Structures and Sounds

1 Comment

Ancient Greek Scales!

No Comments

Harmonic Ratio Arpeggiator

10 Comments

anise starscape

1 Comment

The Mother Lode

Vico Drone

Aluminum

Ricemutt Visits the Monks

Mercurian Reef

Bells and Sumatra

TX night

2 Comments

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